Texas A&M begins search for AD

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Texas A&M has hired a search firm to help find its next athletic director, a day after Bill Byrne retired from the position.

The school hired Parker Executive Search, a firm that has worked on athletic director searches at dozens of schools including five in the Southeastern Conference, where A&M is moving July 1.

Texas A&M regent Jim Wilson and Jason Cook, the school's vice president for marketing and communications, will co-chair the search committee.

Nine other people make up the committee, including two professors, softball coach Jo Evans, Adaora Elonu, a former women's basketball player who remains a student, and former football player Terrence Murphy.

School president R. Bowen Loftin says he hopes to have the new athletic director in place when the fall semester begins.